When you live in an apartment with shared washing machines, you can’t help but wonder how clean they really are. I mean, everyone dumps nice smelling, dirt cleaning detergents in them so I guess in theory they should be pretty clean. But holes eventually get stuck, pipes get clogged and overused appliances degrade as they age.
I thought about getting a portable washer. But the thought of it possibly overflowing or leaking due to some malfunction and then flooding my entire apartment made me stick to the icky shared washers instead. I’m weird that way.
So far, I’ve only washed a couple of loads in the washers and the clothes were already coming out with dirty residue on them. Adding to the damage, the water here in LA is so hard. No, not difficult my fellow Asians. Hard water = high mineral content. Basically with hard water, any detergent won’t work as well to clean my stinking clothes.
I needed something to cut through the hard water and if the solution gives me a big fat bonus like extra cleaning power, I wouldn’t mind that. Double win!
What’s my knight in shining armor.. my savior?
Borax + Washing Soda + Baking Soda
Yes, they look like three boring white powder. That’s because they are. White I mean. Not boring. Life is never boring.
Think how much laundry booster art you can make out of it.
Yes, it’s bad. I knew that since I was 12, after all my Cs in Art class.
Warning: Infomercial sounding me.
Washing soda and borax help prevent the minerals from interacting with the detergent thus allowing the suds to do its job. They also don’t allow anything to settle on the surface of the clothes. Both are also great with removing tough stains and grease. Baking soda is great at deodorizing the clothes and removing all the smellies from em.
End of infomercial.
So I tried the laundry booster and my load came out sparkling clean, ok maybe not sparkling because clothes don’t sparkle. Squeaky clean with no residues on them. When folding the clothes, my hands started stroking the clothes as if they haven’t touched soft clothes for a long time. Indeed, some of the stiff and rough clothing actually felt softer. I believe the booster removed the old built up gunk-y residue on the clothes as well. Brilliant. My knight in shining powder indeed.
Quick Recipe
what you need:
1 part Borax
1 part Washing Soda
1 part Baking Soda
directions:
- Start the washer and water.
- Dissolve 1-2 tablespoon of booster mix in hot water. Stir well. (This is for a full load, you can add more or less depending on how soiled your clothes are, how hard the water is and the size of your load.)
- Immediately add the mixture to the water. Fill washer with detergent and soiled clothes. Wash as usual.
Notes:
Plenty of people mention that the powder leaves ‘powdered’ residue on their clean clothes. I personally have not encountered this probably because I dissolve the powder in hot water, stir and use immediately.
I buy my baking soda from Costco. It’s $6.49 for a 13.5lb bag. I used that much baking soda. From laundry to cleaning to odor removal to baking to washing stainless steel cookware. If you’re not a Costco member, you could get it from Walmart. It’s $7.57 for a 12lb bag or you could buy the 2lb, 4lb or 5lb ones for a low price.
I buy my borax from Target. It’s $3.99 for a 76oz box.
I buy my washing soda from Walmart. It’s $3.24 for a 55oz box.
What is your laundry booster?
